The Misunderstanding
by emma-rowling
Summary: Roman Reigns has been stood up by his brother; luckily he found new company. One shot on Roman and Dean's bromance.


"What do you mean you can't make it?"

Roman Reigns ran a hand through his dark locks in frustration as he paced outside Luigi's back and forth.

His brother had cancelled on their dinner plans again. This was the fourth time this month and Roman was on the verge of losing it with him.

Last week, it had been because he had to prepare an affidavit for a divorce case. The week before a trial had been postponed to a later session.

His excuses were wearing Roman's patience thin. The guy had to eat some time, right?

On the phone, his brother was throwing him a half-hearted reason for his last minute cancellation but Roman had tuned him out.

He ended the call abruptly and sighed as he stared at the restaurant's signage.

Now what? Roman hated dining alone especially in a restaurant where most of the people were all in pairs. He'd stick out like a sore thumb. He was furious with his brother; eating here would take a chunk out of Roman's savings.

His eyes fell on a man with auburn hair about his age who gave his name to the hostess in front of the restaurant.

"Dean Ambrose," the man said. "Reservation for two."

"Yes, Mr Ambrose," the hostess reconfirmed. "We have the corner table you requested at the far end for you set up with your usual wine."

"Thanks," the man who introduced himself as Dean replied with a grin. "Could you show him to the table though? He'll be dressed in a black t-shirt with grey jacket. He's never met me before and all he knows is what I'm wearing. I don't even know if he'll show up. He's been awfully quiet today."

"Will do, Mr Ambrose. Allow Alejandro to escort you in. He'll be your waiter tonight."

With that, a dark haired man with pencil thin moustache gestured towards the door with an open palm. "Mr Ambrose, Sir."

Dean followed him in.

Roman stared after him. It was a miracle. It had to be, he thought as he stared down at his outfit – a charcoal grey cardigan with a black t-shirt underneath. He considered doing the unthinkable. Desperate times called for desperate measures and no one was more desperate than Roman right now.

He approached the hostess cautiously. "Hi, I'm… I have a reservation…" Roman hoped with all his heart that she hadn't overheard his conversation with his brother earlier. "Reservation's under Roman Reigns."

"Aaah yes you have a reservation for two," she replied. "Please follow me; I'll bring you to your table."

He followed her to a table with red linen. She walked off and as Roman was about to sit, he saw Dean waving at him slightly from a corner table with burgundy table cloth set with a bottle of wine and two glasses, one of which was filled.

When Dean saw him approaching, he stood up. Roman had to force himself to calm down.

"Hi," Dean said.

"Uh hi," he said. "I'm Roman."

"Nice to meet you, Roman," Dean replied. "I'm Dean."

They both sat down at the same time. Dean poured wine into the wine glass in front of Roman. "Sorry for drinking before you arrived," he apologised. "I was very nervous."

"Are you still nervous?"

"Oh yeah. Pretty sure I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Didn't expect you to look so… so… well like this."

Roman raised an eyebrow. "Ummm…"

"You look like you stepped out the cover of a GQ magazine."

"Well… You're uh quite the catch yourself."

Dean was very amiable, Roman thought. He felt himself relaxing as they both started to transition from small talk to themselves. He was on his second glass of wine when Dean had just finished recounting about his recent visit to the Maldives.

"Sounds like you're the adventurous sort. I admire that in a person. I would even go further and say going on a blind date also counts as an adventure… going into the unknown."

"Thank you. Truth is I hardly go for this sort of thing. But when Seth told me about you, I just had to meet you. I mean, coming from the hard knocks of life to being one of the most successful lawyers. I know what that's like. I've been through the same thing. I lived in public housing and I worked my way up to owning Dirty Deeds Gyms."

Roman stiffened. It couldn't be. He knew who Seth was: his brother's best friend. While Roman's brother was successful, he couldn't say the same about himself despite assurances from his closest friends that he was in his own way.

He worked as a cashier at a comic books shop and attended night classes at a local community college. He was renting a small room in an apartment near his college and commuted on public transport.

Dean was going to be sorely disappointed and Roman couldn't bear the thought of letting him down. He really liked him and it was a shame that they had to meet like this. "Dean, I've got to tell you something-" he started but something -someone- cut him off.

"Sorry, I'm late."

Dean's eyes widened and Roman found himself wishing the earth would swallow him. His brother's eyes fell upon him. "Roman? I thought that I had cancelled our plans."

"Hi Rosey," he mumbled.

Dean was looking back and forth between the two brothers. "Can someone please explain what's going on?"

"I'm your blind date," Rosey said.

"You're my blind date?" Dean repeated. "But I thought Roman-"

"I'm sorry, Dean," Roman apologised. "Rosey's right. He is your blind date. The truth is I walked into this restaurant and you thought I was your blind date and I just kind of went with it because I didn't want to eat alone."

Dean looked flabbergasted and Roman couldn't blame the guy. Rosey, on the other hand, was fuming. "You stole my date?"

"How was I supposed to know he was your date? And you're one to talk; didn't you have a last minute hearing or something?"

"That's not the point! How could you?"

Roman stood up and nodded towards Dean who was staring at his wine glass. "I'm really sorry, Dean." He walked out of the restaurant, his head bowed down. Roman couldn't shake off the sadness he was feeling. It was a shame that Dean and him were worlds apart.

He had walked two blocks down from the restaurant when he heard someone calling out his name. He stopped in his tracks, only to find Dean running towards him. When he reached him, he was frowning. "Didn't anyone tell you how rude it is to walk out in the middle of dinner?"

Roman shook his head. "But, Rosey and you-"

"That stuffed shirt dude? No offence, Roman but how on earth are you two related?"

"You don't know much about me, Dean."

"But I want to," Dean asked. "Your brother told me about you; bragged about how well off he was and… listen, I do have an opening at my gym near Park Avenue for a personal trainer. We pay well. Look, Roman, I think you're a decent guy and I really want to help you."

"But I have night classes and-"

"We'll schedule your shifts around your classes. Now, come on. I want to head to McDonald's."

"McDonald's? What about Luigi's?"

"Uh that's fine if you want to dine with insufferable snobs but I'm all about a quarter pounder. So come on!"

Roman grinned as they continued walking down the street. Maybe they weren't that different after all.

Just maybe they could be best friends.

 _ **Hi guys. This was based on a prompt sent to me on Tumblr and I wanted to write something around the start of their friendship/bromance. I hope you liked it :-) - msabrina1984**_


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